Informe El medio ambiente en Europa: Estado y perspectivas 2020

PART 1
environmental and climate dimensions
along with issues of security, affordability,
market integration, and research,
innovation and competitiveness.
The Regulation on the Governance of
the Energy Union and Climate Action
establishes a unique framework for
cooperation between Member States
and the EU, building on integrated
national energy and climate plans, EU
and national long-term strategies, and
integrated reporting, monitoring and data
publication (EU, 2018f). In addition, these
mitigation efforts are complemented
by the EU adaptation strategy on
climate change (EC, 2013), which aims
to make Europe more climate resilient
by enhancing the preparedness and
capacity to respond to the impacts of
climate change (Chapter 7) and which
has recently been evaluated positively
(EC, 2018i). The online European
Climate Adaptation Platform, Climate-
ADAPT, plays a central role in improving
informed decision‐making for climate
change adaptation across Europe
(EEA and EC, 2019).
The concept of a circular economy has
recently gained traction in European
policymaking as a solutions-oriented
perspective for achieving economic
development within increasing
environmental constraints (EEA, 2016).
A circular economy aims to maximise
the value and use of all materials and
products, reducing the dependency
on primary raw GHG emissions, thus
contributing to moving towards a
low‐carbon economy. In 2015, the
European Commission adopted its
circular economy package, which
includes an EU action plan for the
circular economy (EC, 2015a), setting
out a number of initiatives aiming at
closing the loop of product life cycles,
primarily through greater recycling.
The package also led to the revision
of six waste directives with new waste
management targets regarding recycling
and preparing for reuse and landfilling
(Chapter 9). In 2018, the European
Commission adopted complementary
Major policy developments
have occurred around the
frameworks of the low‐carbon
economy, the circular
economy and the bioeconomy.
measures in its 2018 circular economy
package, including a strategy for
plastics that sets the goal that ‘by 2030,
all plastics packaging will have to be
reusable or recyclable in an economically
viable manner’, and sets up a monitoring
framework to record progress towards
the circular economy at EU and national
levels (EC, 2018a, 2018b).
While not being an environmental policy
per se, a third framework of particular
relevance to the environment and
climate has gained momentum during
the last decade. The EC (2012) defines
the bioeconomy as ‘the production of
renewable biological resources and
the conversion of these resources
and waste streams into value added
products, such as food, feed, bio-based
products and bioenergy’ and states that
it aims to optimise the use of biological
resources for ensuring food security,
managing natural resources sustainably,
reducing dependence on non-renewable
resources, mitigating and adapting to
climate change, and creating jobs and
maintaining European competitiveness.
The EU launched its bioeconomy
strategy in 2012 to stimulate knowledge
development, research and innovation,
bring together stakeholders, create
markets, and streamline existing policy
approaches in this area (e.g. the CAP,
the CFP, Horizon 2020, the Blue Growth
initiative). Building on the conclusions
of the 2017 review (EC, 2017b), the 2018
update of the bioeconomy strategy
aims to accelerate the development
of a sustainable circular bioeconomy,
through strengthening, scaling up and
spreading bio-based innovations across
Europe, while paying more attention to
ecological limitations (EC, 2018b).
Overall, the EU environmental and
climate policy landscape aims to address
the short-, medium- and long‐term
time horizons through a range of
policies, strategies and instruments that
increasingly connect the environmental,
social and economic dimensions of
sustainability (Figure 2.2). However,
the ambition of the 7th EAP vision and
frameworks such as the low-carbon
economy, the circular economy and
the bioeconomy is such that it implies
fundamental societal transitions to
transform key production-consumption
systems (Part 3). While policy
interventions can trigger the change
needed, such ambition will ineluctably
question our collective ways of living
and thinking. One positive sign is the
increasing awareness and concern
around environmental and climate
challenges across society.
2.3
The context of Europe’s
governance
2.3.1
Environmental and climate
mainstreaming in EU institutions
In addition to adopting policies, the
EU institutions have started to embed
environmental and climate dimensions
in a number of ways, which reflects an
increasing recognition of sustainability
challenges. For instance, the multiannual
financial framework, the EU’s budget for
2014-2020, had the objective of ensuring
that at least 20 % of the EU’s budget is
allocated to climate‐related expenditure
(EU and Euratom, 2013). Based on the
current trend, climate-related spending
is projected to amount to EUR 200
billion or 19.3 % of the EU’s operational
spending commitments (EC, 2018j),
and climate change adaptation and
mitigation have been integrated into
all major EU spending programmes.
SOER 2020/Europe’s policies and sustainability goals
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